Isaac Rankin's Story

Isaac had to admit, he was a little thankful he didn't have to move. His room was big enough he really could spread out in there, but he liked getting to chill in the livingroom. Technically, it was his apartment and he could be wherever he pleased, but he'd never liked getting in people's way, or being annoying. Besides, the lighting was so much better in here.

He nodded a little and didn't press Colton for more conversation. Isaac loved to talk, but he was getting the feeling Colton didn't. Which was fine with him, if a little lonely. Collin and Oliver hadn't been gone long, and already Isaac was bouncing between being glad he had his space back, and missing their endless chatter. The latter was probably the reason he'd agreed to have another roommate at all. He didn't like being alone too much.

He looked up when Colton did speak again, and gave yet another nod. "Kacey, right?" he remembered from the brief introduction at Cara's party. It seemed like so long ago, now, even though it'd literally been last night. If he was right, she was in 5B, which he had a feeling could get pretty crowded sometimes. But he didn't bring that up, just replied with a quick 'cool, cool' and searched the floor until he found his pens. He was thinking he could sharpen the lines, then pull out his paint, get a little drunk...coloring outside the lines had never stopped being fun, for him.

There was a beat of silence and some shuffling in the kitchen, and this time when Colton asked a question, Isaac smirked slowly. He constantly lied about what he did for a living, the few times people bothered to ask. It wasn't really with malicious intent, he just didn't really like to talk about it. This time, he decided to go with an even more far fetched answer than usual, just for the hell of it. "Oh, I work for the FBI, you know down at Federal Plaza? Really low level shit, basically a fancy janitor, but you know...not allowed to talk about it, much. Federal secrets could be in the trash." Isaac raised his head to meet Colton's gaze, widened his eyes in what he hoped looked very, very serious before he couldn't fight back the grin anymore.

He honestly didn't know how much the cable bill was. Collin had always been shifty on rent, and Ollie had only been around for a little while, so Isaac had usually carried the bills by himself. He knew how much he paid in total, but he hadn't separated things out in awhile. He'd almost actually forgotten it was customary to split the rent..."Let me get back to you on that cable bill. I'll have to look it up...everything's been on auto-draft for awhile now..." Which reminded him he needed to call his bank sometime, if Colton was actually going to pay bills. How odd.

He waved the subject off and went back to his drawing, spreading himself out on his stomach once more. "Have a good time with Kacey. Feel free to come back over here if it gets too crowded. I really can move all my shit, it's no biggie."

---

Colton didn't buy the whole FBI thing, but he nodded through everything Isaac said. It wasn't like he was incredibly perceptive or knew Isaac well enough to tell that he was lying, but it just didn't feel believable. Why? Colton wasn't even sure. It was mostly just surface level judgements and him deeming that a guy who looked like Isaac wouldn't be hired as a federal level anything. Even that couldn't fully explain him not believing it, though, because Isaac didn't "look" any particular way. He was a little scruffy looking but that didn't mean, in any respect, that he couldn't get a job somewhere. Working for the FBI was just too far fetched for him to not inwardly roll his eyes at. Even if he was a janitor who cleaned FBI buildings, he wasn't going to be employed by the FBI themselves, to a point where it would make sense to say that he worked for the FBI. He wasn't a federal agent, he wasn't a part of the FBI. He would have been employed by some outward source that the FBI had a contract with. If Colton had known that at one point, Isaac had been paying the entire rent for the apartment, the idea of him being a janitor would have been even more unbelievable. Unless he was working as a janitor full time somewhere where he had an awesome contract with benefits, there was no way that he was making enough money to afford a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan on his own, nonetheless afford it and still have money left over to have hobbies, like drawing, and possibly smoking bud, if that was the faint scent he had picked up the day before when he moved in.

Colton knew that he was definitely overthinking all of this, but since he had very quickly decided that he didn't buy the idea of it, it made him feel uneasy. He didn't have to like his roommate, but feeling like he was lying to him over something so meaningless and trivial made him bothered, a bit. He quickly decided that the dude was either one of those crazy people who created lies and actually believed them, or was a jobless loser who just had to come up with a story on the spot, instead of admitting that he leeched off of society... which still wouldn't have made much sense, because he had to do something to pay rent. For all he knew, though, there was a possibility that Isaac wasn't lying. Colton wouldn't acknowledge that possibility, but in reality, it did exist.

"Alright, later, man," he said as soon as Isaac stopped talking. He felt as dramatic as Kacey as he quickly closed the door behind himself and walked across the hall to 5B, but he wasn't feeling as confident in his roommate match as he had been yesterday. Once he was out of his own apartment, he could see that 5B's door was open, and as he took a few steps towards it, he saw a guy in the doorway talking to Kacey. Perfect, he thought with a smirk, now knowing that it would be impossible for her to pretend that she wasn't home and not let him in. He caught the last bit of Ryan talking, saying something about living in 5C, before hearing Kacey say, "Okay, cool, I'll let them know." She looked uncomfortable as she smiled at the guy, before noticing Colton standing a few feet away, which seemed to cause that uncomfortable smile to transform into a glare almost automatically. She didn't offer her name to Ryan now, because she was focused on Colton, and waited until Ryan had left to roll her eyes and officially address Colton. "Can I help you?" She noticed the beers in his hand, but was too used to Colton drinking 24/7 to comment on him starting so early.

"Yup, I'm here to watch your TV and eat my chicken parm hero," Colton reiterated from his text as he stepped past Kacey brazenly, a smirk aligned in its usual place on his face. Upon entering the apartment, he noticed that it smelled good, like it had yesterday, but it only took a few seconds for him to realize that the source of that good smell was still there. A fresh lasagna sat on top of the stove. There were also containers of food on the table, but he knew that this smell could only be coming from the tray that was still letting off heat. "So the day you move out, you decide to become Martha Stewart? And you don't even have the decency to let me know so I don't bring home a nice, juicy chicken parm hero? That's fucked up, Kace. Really fucked up." If this sandwich wasn't calling his name, he would have indulged in the tray of food she had just made, but at least now that he knew it was here, he knew what he would be having for dinner.

"Oh, shut up. Why are you here anyway? Your apartment has a TV."

"Am I not allowed to visit a friend when I just happened to be passing through her neighborhood?" He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, just in time to catch Kacey's unamused look, while walking towards the couch. He sat himself down, unwrapped his sandwich on the coffee table and cracked open another beer. "Where's hot chick number two and the psycho roommate? Don't tell me you ran them out with your attitude? No, or wait, don't tell me that you made this lasagna to try to win them over and convert them into joining your lesbian cult."

After Kacey had put the containers of Ryan's food that looked perishable into the fridge, she walked towards the television that Colton sat in front of. "You're mad annoying," she said first, before taking the ponytail holder from her wrist and trying her hair into a ponytail. "They're just out. I don't know where they went, but it's not just the two of them. There's a little annoying one too, who's the psycho's sister. But she's not psycho. I spoke to her and she's actually pretty chill. Her name is Makayla and "hot chick number two" is Chanel. And no, I made lasagna because I wanted it, so fuck you."

"You wanted 'it', as in you wanted that ass? Hot Chick Number Two is off limits. I'm the only one who gets to corrupt that one, alright? You can have the psycho though."

Isaac was bored.

Which was really pretty sad actually because it was barely after lunchtime, and despite the amount of Adderall he popped he didn't actually have ADD or any of it's variations. He was just..bored. And probably lonely. He kept roommates for a reason, and while his last two had always been in his business, he hadn't minded all that much.

His record finished again, his project was done and lying out to dry, and he'd already made himself lunch and put away two drinks.

The question was...what now?

Technically, the apartment was empty. He could do whatever he wanted. Blaze something up, dance around in his fucking underwear if he felt like it (he didn't), commandeer the living room television set...pop acid and watch cartoons.

What he actually ended up doing was laying face down on the carpet and staring down a the little fibers, wondering what it was like to be an ant and crawl around down there. Did it feel like a forest? Would they get lost or know their way?

He really needed something better to do with his days.

Normally, he'd be somewhere, doing something. Get ready, grab a train, head upstate maybe. Hit a bar, hit a club once it got late enough. But it was the Friday after Thanksgiving, who would even be up? Probably not his normal places...or, actually, given the lack of "Family Men" in his normal places, maybe they would be open after all...

Regardless, he still had hours be could go anywhere. Nick was probably around, but they'd just smoked yesterday, he wasn't sure if he could talk his not-quite-friend into lighting up with him again. Roman might be around...and they did actually have rain checked plans but...it was likely he was still sleeping.

Isaac arched in eyebrow in interest at the thought of a nap, but he wasn't actually that tired. Sure he could probably sleep if he really fought for it but.

He sighed. "Bored. Bored, bored, bored."

Isaac tugged his phone out of his pocket and rolled around onto his back, pulling up the internet and checking on his usual haunts...still not sure what he was going to do with his day. God, but the apartment was so quiet. He was going to go insane. He almost actually missed the tell-tale sounds of sex coming from Collin's old room.

Sex.

Boredom killer number one.

And the apartment was empty. So far, Colton hadn't been a homebody at all. Not that it really mattered, Isaac had a bedroom, and actually knew music was a thing. He could be unbothersome and have someone over. He didn't usually have guys over, just because of how full his place had a tendency to be...and also because he was kind of weird about his space...and he wasn't exactly the relationship type. If hookups didn't know where to find him, he generally didn't have a problem with that.

But there was one guy...

Isaac sighed a little and shifted through his contacts until he found the name he was looking for.

[center][To: Seb
you home

To: Isaac
what do you want?

To: Seb
what do you think

To: Isaac
lol bored?

To: Seb
want to come over or not?

To: Isaac
Mm depends...what you got?

To: Seb
everything

To: Isaac
20mins see you soon